Editors' Note
Annabelle and Carlotta
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We boarded freight trains and honked horns in sidecars through the city. You read us stories around a campfire and loaded guns and took aim - firing once, twice, not at all. You taught us how to rodeo, how to kiss girls, where to drink the coldest, cheapest, bitterest beer in Texas.
We’d be lying if we said this wasn’t one of our favourite themes. You took us home this time. Some of you, anyway - others took us on adventures through the Great Smoky Mountains or where the buffalo roam, where none of us had been before.
We’ve had double the number of submissions for this issue. You took us straight into triple figures and then kept on going. We’ve got a story about the pros and cons of Montana on page 38 by the marvellous Camille Griep. Her story feels like warm wood in cool, mountain air - something bites, something catches, but something feels like home too, soothing and melancholy.
We interview the incredibly talented author and editor Leesa Cross-Smith about her debut short story collection, Every Kiss
short story collection, Every Kiss A War. She tells us what ‘Americana’ means to her and we daydream about all those pretty, vivid words she uses. We talk to musician Chris Pureka about writing songs, travelling and meeting Gillian Welch (right?).
And we skate through the rest of the magazine with juicy images by photographers Jamie Drew and Tom Darin Liskey, sipping whiskey along the way with Sheri L. Wright’s rusty photographs and Colm Boyd’s scrapbook of America.
If we could throw all our contributors a massive party with Tom Petty in the background and red solo cups, we would (hey, maybe one day?). It’s been a pleasure putting together a magazine beaming and pouring with talent. Thank you to all our wonderful contributors, and.. *holds up red solo cup*… here’s to the next.